


Thirteen, Her Blue Box and the Whole of Time and Space

by EvelynThursday



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Doctor Whump, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s11e01 The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Fluff, Gen, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, One Shot, Prompt Fill, Snippets, Vignette, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2019-08-02 20:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 6,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16312484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvelynThursday/pseuds/EvelynThursday
Summary: A collection of short stories, scenes and one shots too short to have their own individual story. Mostly whump and hurt/comfort. Each chapter is stand alone and summaries for each are inside.





	1. Sudden Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Tag for the ending of season 11 episode 1, 'The Woman who fell to Earth'. Inspired by Inktober/Jotober 2018 day 8 prompt 'star'.

The garage vanished, and with a rush of air past her ears, was replaced with stars. The cold was a shock to her skin as was the sudden lack of oxygen. Her lungs started burn under the pressure of the air she had held just before she had activate the teleport. She had expected to end up on a planet, possibly with a hostile atmosphere, hence the holding of breath, not here. She tightened her grip on her sonic screwdriver to make sure she didn’t lose it (again) and looked around.

To her horror she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She fought the lack of gravity, twisting a little to see her friends floating there in space with her. They looked terrified. What had she done, dooming them to a quick but brutal death in the cold vacuum of space?

There was no planet in sight. What was she going to do now?


	2. Exhaustion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set at the start of the Doctor's regeneration sickness during S11E1 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth'. Inspired by the Inktober/Jotober day 7 prompt 'exhausted'.

“Seriously though, aliens?” Asked Graham, sounding like he still wasn't believing 100% of what had happened that night.

“Yep,” replied the Doctor, feeling dizzy. She barely noticed Graham’s next words 

“Oh yeah, maybe I won't mention that bit,” before he walked off into the darkness.

She was suddenly struck with a wave of exhaustion, knocking everything sideways. She bent over, trying to keep her balance before straightening up, drawing in a large breath.

“Suddenly,” she admitted to her new friends, “I feel...really tired.” 

“That was a big fall you had, love.” The Doctor felt Grace near her side and heard the concern in her voice. “Should get you checked out at A and E.”

“No, no,” she objected “I never go anywhere that's just initials.” And hospitals, in her experience, were full of people who meddled and fussed and caused all sorts of problems. All she needed was somewhere quiet to rest for a bit. “Although…” Her nose started to itch, her time sense trying to tell her something, though the feeling was unclear. 

She drew in a deep breath, sticking her finger in her nose to concentrate the scent of time in one nostril. 

“Ah, can one of you catch me?” The nose plugging had worked, coalescing time into a something she could understand.

“You gonna fall over?” Asked Ryan, alarmed.

“In two minutes nineteen seconds. Wait,” okay, so her sense of time was still a little fuzzy, “forget the two minutes, nineteen-.” The thought slipped through her mind and no matter how hard she tried she could not gasp it. “Oh, this new nose is  _ so  _ reliable.”

Then everything turned into a fading riot of light and colour and she knew no more.

 

* * *

 

 

Grace was shocked as the strange woman suddenly collapsed into Ryan’s arms. He struggled with her ungainly weight for a moment before managing to sit her on the floor, propped up against his chest as he knelt on the pavement.

Grace gave her a shake to see if she would wake up, but she didn’t, just stayed there limp in Ryan’s arms.

They looked like a right odd lot, a nan and her grandson sitting on the pavement outside their house holding the unconscious form of a scruffy looking alien woman wearing men’s clothes several sizes too big for her.

“She’s breathing steadily,” said Grace, giving their new friend a look over, “which is good. And as she has been running about all evening she can’t have any broken bones from that fall. She must be exhausted. Ryan, love, can you carry her inside? I’ll open t’ door.”

With Grace’s help Ryan manages to wrangle the limp body into his arms and carries her up the steps and through the front door. Her head lolls on his shoulder and he can feel her soft breathing on his neck. She doesn't make a sound, even when he accidentally lets her dangling hand hit a door frame on the way past.

“Put her on t’ sofa so she can sleep,” said Grace after shutting the front door, squeezing past them in the living room to rearrange the cushions to make it comfortable for their guest. “I’ll keep an eye on her whilst you go check Twitter for anything alien.”

Ryan carefully deposits the alien on the sofa, helping Grace to remove their guest’s coat then leaves his nan to settle her, straightening limbs and propping her head up on two of the more comfy cushions, making sure she still breathing easily. She must be really deeply asleep as she didn’t even twitch during her ministations.

Grace leaves her for a few moments, sitting at Ryan’s side at the dining room table as he flicked through Twitter on his tablet. She looked at his search results - the American president, immigration, NASA, views on the new sci fi show on the TV, nothing local about aliens. She looked at her own phone, opening Whatsapp and reading the recent messages there. No mention of anything strange there either. She sent off a message to the group and put the phone back in her pocket.

She looked at the woman lying across her sofa. She looked different now she wasn’t running around. Gone was the cheeky grin and the manic spark in her eyes. Now she was sleeping peacefully, breathing slowly and body still, blond hair fanned across the cushions. She didn’t look alien. 

Nothing to do now but wait for Graham and Yaz to reappear, Grace thought to herself, looking at the clock on the wall. Hopefully they will be more successful in their information gathering than she had been. 

Her eyes drifted back to her guest, suddenly remembering the coolness of her skin as she helped Ryan carry her. She didn’t know how different her biology was from human, it wasn’t as if she had been taught about different species when she was learning to be a nurse. But if she was human she could get cold, especially in those ill fitting clothes after running outside all evening. Best fetch a blanket. 


	3. Headache

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I wrote this in one day! I had the idea in bed in the morning and the words just flooded out. Now if only the same would happen with the prompt fill I am writing at the moment.

“Doctor?” Called Graham, entering the console room. “Doctor, you in here?” He looked around, searching for the Time Lord around the edges of the room as she wasn’t standing in her usual spot at the console. There was no sign of her.

Just as he was going to turn back into the depths of the Tardis he spotted two legs peeking out from behind the console. Two booted legs with blue stripy socks, a length of bare shin and bottom of cropped blue trousers. The Doctor!

He raced around the console. The Doctor was lying on the floor, flat on her back beside the custard cream dispenser with a hand over her eyes.

“Doctor?”

“Hmmmm?” She murmured, sounding a little out of it. She lifted her fingers to squint at him groggily before replacing them over her eyes again. “‘Lo Graham.”

He knelt at her side.

“Doctor, are you ok?”

“Headache. It's been building all day.”

“Why didn't you go to your room and lie down there?” He asked. The hard floor of the console room couldn’t be the most comfortable place to have a nap.

“I got dizzy. I thought it would be safer to stay here. It’ll pass, don’t worry.”

“Are you still dizzy? Or can you make it to your room on your own?”

“I think I’d rather stay here, Graham, if it’s all the same to you. I just need to sleep it off.”

“I’m not leaving you on the floor, Doc. You’ll feel better in your own bed and you are going to make it there whether I help you or not.”

She sighed, removing her hand from over her eyes and lifted both her arms in the air. Graham stood and grasped her hands and levered her up. As soon as she was up he was instantly concerned that she wasn’t going to stay that way. She was unsteady on her feet and she slumped forward into him, head heavy on his shoulder.

“Doctor?”  He asked.

“Ow,” she moaned. “Dizzy”.

He rubbed her shoulders where he was steadying her. He frowned, suddenly realising that the Doctor’s usually cool hands had been warm in his own as he lifted her. He held one again, just to check. 

“You’re warm.”

“I’m a tad feverish, I think,” she mumbled, face still buried in his shoulder. She seemed to be standing a little steadier but seemed to have no inclination to move.

“Where is your bedroom?” He asked quietly in her ear, wondering if headache was an understatement and she really had a migraine. She was certainly shielding her eyes like she had one. 

“It’ll be close,” she said, floppily waving a hand towards the depths of the Tardis. She still didn’t otherwise move.

Graham let her stay there for a few moments, before stepping back and letting the Doctor’s head slip off his shoulder. He moved beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

“Come on Doc, the sooner we move the sooner you can get in bed.”

She moved when he stepped forward, squinting at her feet as they walked.

“Do you need me to get you any pain killers? Paracetamol, aspirin…?” He asked.

“No. No aspirin. That’ll kill me.”

“What?! Is there anything else I should know about that might kill you?”

“Just don't give me anything without either me or the Tardis saying it is safe. And I don't need anything other than to sleep it off, but thank you Graham.” She gave him a pain filled smile.

The corridor was quiet as they entered it, the console room rumbling fading into the background. And was it just him or were the lights dimmer than usual?

He looked at all the doors as they went past, searching for a different one, but they seemed to be the usual rooms - kitchen, library, wardrobe, tool cupboard. He still couldn't quite get to grips with the fact that rooms could move.

They turned a corner. He spotted a blue door that he had never seen before. 

“Doctor? Is this it?”

She opened her eyes and tiredly grinned.

“Yes,” and lurched off his shoulder towards the door, hands reaching for the brass handle. 

She all but fell through the door, Graham close behind to make sure she didn’t fall over. She made her way to the bed, shedding her coat on the way. Graham picked it up from its pile on the floor and placed it over the chair in the corner.

The Doctor slowly lowered herself face down onto the bed. It looked like she had just wanted to collapse down but was moving gingerly to not make her head ache further. 

Graham took the opportunity to look around the Doctor’s elusive room. The walls were dark and the ceiling was a slowly moving mass of stars and galaxies.

There was a desk to one side, littered with bits of electrical equipment and strange alien artefacts. There were also two photos, a black and white image of a young looking woman and the other a woman with masses of straw coloured curls smiling at the camera.

The bedspread was a dark blue, just a shade or two darker then the police box exterior of the time and space ship they were in. The Doctor had just spread herself across the middle of the bed on top of the covers and at right angles to where the pillows were placed.

“Are you going to remove your shoes?” Graham asked.

She grumbled back at him and didn’t move.

He sighed and bent down to unlace and remove her boots. He tucked them out of the way under the bed and stood up. 

“Is there anything else you need?”

She didn’t answer. She looked relaxed there in her sprawl on the bed, eyes shut and limbs still. Graham thought it would be best to leave her to sleep.

 

* * *

Graham stuck his head round the Doctor's door a few hours later

She was still lying on top of the covers but she shifted a little so her feet were no longer hanging in the air. She had spread eagled herself so the fingers of one hand disappeared off the far edge. He could hear her snoring softly.

He was satisfied that she was sleeping deeply and comfortably so he quietly shut the door.

“Where's the Doctor?” Yaz asked as he turned from the door, heading to the kitchen to find the others.

“In her room,” he pointed a thumb at the door behind him, “sleeping. Don't disturb her, she needs the rest.”

“She ok?”

“She said she will be after a sleep. I found her lying on the console room floor with a bad headache.”

“I hope she feels better soon. I was only going to ask her if she wanted to join our movie night. Do you want to come?”

“What are you watching?”

“We can’t agree. I think we need you to referee.”

“You two can never agree,” he said as they walked down the corridor towards the cinema room. “What are the choices? Not horror this time I hope, that last one was too close to the truth to be comfortable.”


	4. Twins!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor finds this regeneration more similar to Kate Stewart than her previous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this thought a few days ago and after the New Year's special's revelation about UNIT I thought I'd write it down. I needed to write something happy (and silly). I think this might be my first true drabble - writing exactly 100 words is surprisingly hard!
> 
> Sorry for not updating sooner, my current ficlet is over 4000 words long and I have two other WIPs (in this fandom, I have a few more in another fandom that I would really love to finish), including the episode 2 prompt I was given, which I haven't forgotten about! I'll get back to writing it once I've finished my main WIP.
> 
> Keep updated with my WIPs and see snippets on my Tumblr (link should be at the bottom of the page) or search for @EviesWritingJournal.

Kate Stewart stood surrounded by her troops as the Doctor bounded out of the Tardis. 

“Kate, hello! What did you call me for? We were just...”

The Doctor's attention shifted to her hair, eyes widening in realisation. Kate resisted the temptation raise a hand to it.

The Doctor suddenly stepped forward, grabbing a lock of Kate's hair and pulled it towards a fist full of her own. Kate bent with the tug and their blonde hair mixed together. The Doctor beamed.

“Look, we match! We're twins!”

“Yes, Doctor,” said Kate flatly.”Can we get on with the matter at hand?”


	5. Her Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Tardis discover that the distress call they were following had already been answered. But by whom?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After stumbling on someone's 13th Doctor fanart on Pinterest (@juanmao1997 on Twitter) the plot bunny for this wandered around my head for a few days before I wrote it down. Go check out their art, even if you can't understand Chinese (and I can't) you will understand what most of the pieces are conveying. Also Cat!13 is absolutely adorable (cats!9-through-12 are also perfect, as is cat!Missy).

“I am afraid you are too late,” said the alien to the Doctor as Team Tardis looked around at the damaged buildings. “The distress call has already been answered and the situation has been resolved. But I thank you for coming to our aid.”

“Oh,” said the Doctor, looking almost disappointed that she couldn't wade into an exciting situation and take control. 

“Back to the Tardis then,” muttered Graham to Yaz. “I can finish my cup of tea.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Asked the Doctor, bouncing on her toes. 

“I can ask our saviour what you can do to assist with the rebuilding efforts. I will take you to our headquarters. Come.”

“You've lost your thunder with this,” said Ryan to the Doctor as they walked through streets filled with aliens clearing rubble. “You're not the hero this time.”

“I’m not a hero, Ryan. But it's nice to know that there are people out there who help other people not enslave them.” She replied. “Or at least that’s what I am hoping is happening. I’ve seen the rescue of a civilisation used as a cover for invasion too many times before to trust what is happening on the surface. Anyway, I’m excited to meet whoever answered the distress call first, it sounded like it was going to be a hard situation to sort.”

* * *

 

They entered a low building through heavy metal doors. Inside was a warren of corridors that their guide navigated through with ease.

“Through here.” The alien motioned towards a doorway they had stopped near, sunlight streaming through. “I must go back to my position but our saviour will appoint someone to you to show you where you are needed or back to your ship if required.” It gave a quick hand gesture of farewell and disappeared back down the corridor.

“Well,” said the Doctor. “Let's see who we will find through here.” She stepped through the doorway, palming her sonic screwdriver as she went.

They walked into large room, with rows of control desks encircling out from the centre, each manned by an alien enraptured by their tasks; none of them looked up when they passed. Bright sunlight lit up the room from above, huge glass skylights covering most of the ceiling.

In the centre of the room, standing next to a large bank of screens, stood a human-looking woman with long blond hair tied down her back. She half turned towards them as they neared her, acknowledging their approach with a glance and a nod as she continued speaking to someone through a headset. Her hands moved as she spoke, fingers tapping at buttons and trailing across words on the monitors as she read them.

The Doctor froze mid-step, staring wide eyed at the blond figure, screwdriver slipping from her fingers to clatter on the metal floor. 

“Jenny?” She asked, voice quiet and hopeful yet fearful of the answer. 

The figure turned to the visitors, removing the headset and hanging it up on a corner of a screen. She looked at the Doctor critically.

“Hi, do I know you? I haven't been in this part of the galaxy long enough to know anybody yet.” The Doctor suddenly looked nervous. 

“I'm the Doctor.” 

“I'm sorry,” the woman said, brows furrowing. “but I'm gonna have to ask you to prove it. I've met people pretending to be him before. Though this is the first time a woman has tried it.”

The Doctor looked down at her hands as she spoke.

“You were born on Messaline out of my genetic material to help fight a war. As you didn't have a name Donna called you Jenny as I called you a generated anomaly. You died saving me as I was brokering peace between the humans and the Hath.”

There were tears in both Jenny's and the Doctor’s eyes as the Time Lord looked up, hopeful.

“Dad?” The woman asked.

The Doctor leapt forward and enveloped her daughter in a massive hug, Jenny wrapping her arms around the Doctor's waist, grinning from ear to ear.

Behind them the three forgotten humans just stared shell shocked at each other. Ryan mouthed ‘Dad?’ at the other two.

There were tears streaming down the Doctor’s face as they parted, the Doctor stroking Jenny's cheek. 

“Oh my girl.” She said in an almost sob. “My beautiful girl.”

“Hi Dad,” smiled Jenny. “I hoped I would bump into you again someday.”

“How are you here? You died in my arms.”

“And then I woke up a few hours later. Turned I am more like you than we realised. I stole a shuttle and explored the universe.” The Doctor barked a short laugh. 

“Like father, like daughter.” She stepped back and wiped her face with a hand, sniffing loudly. “You do not know how happy I am to see you alive. I always regretted how poorly I behaved towards you on Messaline. I only knew you for such a short time but I treated you so terribly. You made me remember the family I had lost so I paid no attention to the family I had gained. I'm sorry.”

“It's ok, Dad. I understand. Or should I call you Mum now?”

“You can call me whatever you want. But,” She added in a quiet voice, “I quite liked it when you called me Dad. And I still haven't got completely used to the whole female pronouns thing yet.”

“Dad it is then, whatever face you have.” The Doctor beamed.

“Oh Jenny. I have missed you so much.” There was a few moments silence as both women drunk in the sight of the other. “Has the universe lived up to your expectations?” 

“It’s better than I could have imagined. I always hoped that I could find you so I could tell you about all the places I have been. I also tried to find everything about you. The last of the Time Lords who can change his face. Saviour of worlds. The adventures you have had.”

“Don't tell me about them, some may not have happened to me yet. But I would love to hear where you have been.” 

There was a cough behind them, reminding them that they weren't the only two in the room. Graham stood sheepishly in front of the Yaz and Ryan, clearly having drawn the short straw.

“Aren't you going to introduce us Doctor?” He asked.

“Sorry,” she replied excitedly. “Jenny, this is Graham, Ryan and Yaz.” She pointed to each in turn. “Fam, this is Jenny. My daughter.” 


	6. Duty of Care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor tries to do her best by her friends. Sometimes she doesn't succeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt #1: I have a duty of care.
> 
> I don't think I'm very good at introspection but I had a go.

She had always felt responsible for the people she travelled with.

Sure, way back in time when she had been exploring the universe with her granddaughter, it had been a low priority, the freedom to discover new planets without the restrictions imposed by her people far outweighed the danger that was also out there. She hadn’t gained the experience and the loss that she had now.

The young are always foolish in the eyes of the old.

Looking back she knew that she had not done well by her first few companions, though with some she could barely remember the exact reasons why. Memories from those times had faded, the colours in her mind eye reduced to shades of black and white. Poor Ian and Barbara, inadvertently snatched from their time and taken across the universe when all they wanted was to get back home. But they had made it, unlike others.

All throughout her history she had tried and failed. Let the people she loved die or left them behind all because she thought better. Rose, Donna, River, Clara, Bill, just to name the ones since the Time War, not to mention the ones from her younger years. Susan, Adric- the two that still hurt most in her hearts.

She was young back then, naive. Stupid.

She had, and she still has (sorry Yaz, Ryan and Graham), a habit of ripping people out of their lives and changing them, expecting them to fit back neatly in the hole they had left behind. Change always happened, whether for good or bad, whether they want to or not. She had tried to improve, do better by her friends, but not always succeeded. Even with her best efforts she still lost them, failing in her duty to look after them.

Things were a little rocky with her last body, pushing everybody away so the universe couldn’t take them away. Rough, sharp edges of his personality that only a scant few managed to bare, fewer to smooth them down even slightly. But that didn’t stop the hurt, only amplified it when Bill was killed. He had failed her. He had not fulfilled his duty to her.

That was not going to happen again. Not with these three precious humans.

“Doctor!” Yelled Yaz from somewhere down one of the Tardis’s many corridors. “The popcorn’s ready. Ryan’s about to put the film on!”

“I’ll be there in a minute!” She yelled back, smiling at the colourful nebula before her, the pinks and purples and greens a balm to her tortuous thoughts, and scrambled to her feet in the open doorway.

Care came both ways, she had to remember as she shut the Tardis doors. She was responsible for the welfare of her friends but she had to allow them to care for her too. That’s what made life worth it, caring and being cared for in turn. Embrace it whilst you can, Doctor.


	7. The Doctor and the Tardis, forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fill for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt #2: Old Friends. It's a rather late but I have been on a rather tiring holiday for a week (to Yorkshire, home to the Doctor herself and my ancestors) and finished my Hurt/Comfort Exchange fill.

“It’s been far too long since I cleaned these proto-thermic regulators. Sorry, Old Girl, I’ve not been the best pilot to you recently.”

The Tardis groaned and shot out a jet of hot air into the Doctor’s face as she lay amongst the cables and pipes under the console, ruffling her hair.

“I know, but I’m doing it now. And I’ve fixed the broken temporal logic processor I bought on Saturn VII so I’ll replace that once I’ve finished here.” The Doctor swiped errant strands of hair out of her face with the back of one grimy hand. “It’s amazing what you can get done when you get into the groove. We haven’t had a rest stop this long for ages.” The Tardis sparked at her.

“Yes, I know it’s my fault. Wait, no, it was you that sent us towards that planet last week when I was aiming for that beach resort! I was planning to clean these out whilst the fam were out having fun! We never did get there in the end.” A beep. “I think I'll take them there after I've picked them up. They deserve to have a nice break after our last adventure.”

It had not gone well and the three humans had taken the deaths hard. They had asked to spend a few days at home to process things and the Doctor had let them, wishing to spend some time alone with her bestest and oldest friend to work through her own self blame at the losses. A little Tardis maintenance was just the thing to get her mind off it.

Her tongue stilled as she continued cleaning, humming a half remembered tune from her childhood. The tune brought back memories that hadn’t been thought of in decades; playing amongst the straw in that old barn, running through crimson grass with her boyhood friend by her side.

“Who would have thought,” she mulled to herself and the Tardis, “way back in my first body, that I would end up here? We’ve seen so much of the universe, more than I could even dreamed of when I was at the Academy. What would have happened if I had never stolen you? Or you stole me?” That brought back memories of another time, in her eleventh body with bowties and floppy hair and the married pair of humans that had travelled with him.

No, don’t think about them, that hurts too much. Remember the lady with the torn dress, the wild hair and the gleam of the universe in her eyes.

“I wish we could talk to each other like we could when you got transferred into a human body. We had such a short time together like that. Instead you’ve got to listen to me nattering inanely about things. I know you do talk back in different ways, but it’s just not the same.”

A mournful moan and warm gust of air across her face, almost a caress.

“You’ve always been there for me. We’ve each changed over time but still we’re together.” The now shiny tubes were reconnected and the Doctor shifted to reach the birds nest of wires by her elbow. “Who knows how long we still have left together.” She ran her fingers through the wires, carefully untangling them. “You're my oldest friend, Sexy. I don't know what I'd ever do without you.”


	8. Blinded by Fashion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite being friends with humans for most of her thousand(s) year life the Doctor still can't adhere to their fashion sense, especially for a formal occasion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fill for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt 'formal wear'. Only one day late this time! If anyone drew what the Doctor is wearing in this I would love you forever!

“Doctor, what on earth are you wearing?”

Yaz almost tripped over her own feet in surprise when she entered the console room, Ryan and Graham behind her equally shocked at the state of their friend.

The Time Lord was dressed in a garish riot of coloured fabrics. Gone were her usual blue trousers and in their place were folds of shiny blue-green fabric that were so iridescent it made her friends’ eyes water just looking at it. They couldn't even tell if she was wearing trousers or a skirt.

Her top half was festooned with thick ribbons of luminous yellow and orange, covering a barely visible silver base layer and snaking down her bare arms like an overdressed neon Christmas tree.

“What?” Asked the Doctor, looking down at herself to see if her clothing had suddenly changed without her noticing since she had dressed herself a few minutes prior. It hadn't. “This is the formal dress of the Thoros people. Of course I don't have enough arms to show it off to full effect but its close enough.” She waved an arm in the air and the ribbons that dangled off it fluttered mesmerizingly.

“And why are you wearing it?”

“We've been invited to a party. I saved the High Prince a few years ago so he's invited me and as many friends as I wish to bring to his birthday party.”

“Do we have to wear the same as you?”

“You can wear whatever is formal in your culture, everyone else will be wearing what is appropriate to them so don't worry about looking different.”

“Thank goodness.” exclaimed Graham. “I think you've got a better chance of pulling off that look than I do, Doc.”

“Why don't you wear what your culture wears?” Asked Ryan.

The Doctor screwed up her face.

“I'm not wearing the dress of my culture. It looks stupid, all huge collars and not practical at all. Very silly.”

Yaz grabbed the Doctor by one ribbon covered arm and pulled her in the direction of the wardrobe.

“Well we are not going to be seen with you wearing that. Come on, I'll find you something suitable for you. You fancy a suit or a dress?”

Their voices started a fade as they made their way deeper into the Tardis.

“I don't know,” replied the Doctor. “What do think would look best on this body? I can't say I've worn a dress to a formal occasion before. Though there was that one time….”


	9. Cat With Many Lives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fill for Thirteen Fanzine's prompt "How are you not dead?" This is in fact the first of two fills! The other will be posted tonight/tomorrow, depending on your time zone.

“How are you not dead?”

Yaz beamed at the Doctor, eyes wide as she tentatively touched at her arm, almost not quite believing that she was stood before the three of them.

The Doctor’s coat was singed, lightly smoking at one elbow. Her trousers were torn at one knee and covered in ash. There was blood in her bedraggled hair and soot smudged across her face.

“We saw you go flying after that explosion,” continued Yaz. “We thought you were dead, we barely made it out of there alive ourselves!”

“I’m a cat with nine lives, me. Or rather thirteen lives. No, fourteen so far, and anything up to about twenty, who knows just how many new lives the Time Lord council gave me, even a whole cycle of regenerations. I just don’t know and that’s exciting!” She looked at the stunned faces of her friends. “What?”

“I have no idea if you are being serious, Doc,” said Graham.

“I’m with Grandad.” 

The Doctor slung her arms around Ryan and Graham’s shoulders.

“You two should know by now that I’m always serious.” She patted their backs then tucked her hands in her trouser pockets. “I’m starving. Let’s go find some grub.”

“Can’t argue with you on that, Doc,” agreed Graham.


	10. "I Thought You Were Dead!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second fill for the Thirteen Fanzine "How are you not dead?" Whoo!!
> 
> IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST FILL GO BACK A CHAPTER AS I POSTED BOTH FILLS TODAY!

Yaz held the Doctor’s cold hand as the Time Lord slept, watching the screen showing her reassuring dual heartbeats.

They were in a hospital room, its single bed next to the big window overlooking a park covered in sunflower yellow grass and blue-green leafed trees. There weren't many people enjoying it, most people would still be recovering from the devastation that had ended less than 24 hours ago.

Graham and Ryan had retreated back to the Tardis to sleep, exhausted after the day’s events. Yaz was too worried to sleep, she had napped for a few minutes here and there once the Doctor had been treated but she couldn’t sleep until she knew that the Doctor would be alright. 

When the Doctor woke up.

Yaz still couldn’t shake herself of the memory of when the Doctor was hurt. She knew that she couldn’t have done anything differently but she still felt like she should have done more.

She been helpless when the generator had overloaded, exploding and throwing the Doctor, who had been trying frantically to stop it, across the room. She had watched from behind reinforced glass from the control room as the Doctor flew through the air, almost in slow-mo like in movies when the hero jumps into danger to save everybody. But she was not the hero this time and couldn't even save herself.

The last thing Yaz has seen before Graham and Ryan had dragged her away was of the Doctor's unmoving body amongst the rubble as burning debris fell around her. She had thought her dead. Everyone who was there had thought her dead. No one could have survived the initial explosion and subsequent chain reaction that had destroyed the generator complex.

So it was to everyone's surprise and relief that a day later she had been pulled out of the rubble alive. Unconscious, badly injured and barely clinging to life but still stubbornly alive.

The medics had treated her for hours once she had been rushed to the hospital, her three friends pacing the corridors and putting on a brave face whilst talking to people that also had been injured in the events of the last few days. 

When the medics had finally come to talk to them their nerves were frayed. They had been told the list of the Doctor's injuries, not pleasant to hear. Broken ribs, a broken arm, concussion, a punctured lung, lots of other internal injuries, so many cuts that she had lost a lot of blood. But she was still alive.

All her injuries had been healed enough to make her comfortable, thanks to their technology, but had stopped before they healed fully. It was best, the medics said, to give the Doctor’s body time to recover on its own as the shock of being so badly hurt then artificially healed might be too much.

They also said that thanks to the scan they had taken of Yaz, whose internal anatomy was thankfully was close enough (binary vascular system notwithstanding) for them to use it as a road map, they had healed her unfamiliar anatomy with little difficulty. Without it may have resulted in a different story.

They had been led through the hospital to the room where Yaz now sat, the Doctor pale and still unconscious under the white and silver sheets.

It was a shock to see her so still and lifeless, they so used to seeing her animated and always moving, especially around the console of her beloved Tardis. But here she was, one arm covered in the mottled green-brown of half healed bruises, burns shiny and smooth across a cheek and snaking down a collarbone and disappearing underneath her gown but not the angry red of a fresh injury. Her skin was littered in small cuts and bruises, standing starkly against her pale skin. She stayed unconscious, breathing softly.

Ryan and Graham had stayed for a few hours, chatting quietly before Graham had fallen asleep in his surprisingly comfy chair. Ryan had chosen to take his grandad back to the Tardis and to have a nap for a few hours. He would be back to relieve Yaz from her vigil so the Doctor would not be left alone. 

The fingers in the hand she had held since she had sat at the Doctor’s bedside suddenly twitched. Yaz sat up straight in her chair, heart in her throat and hardly daring to breath. The Doctor groaned, hand and body tensing as her eyes fluttered open. She look up at the ceiling, eyebrows creasing before turning her head to the figure beside her.

“Yaz?” she croaked.

“Yes, Doctor,” Yaz replied, “you’re safe and you’re alright. We’re all alright.”

The Doctor seemed to relax before tensing again, slipping her hand out of Yaz’s and weakly patted at herself through the sheets.

"Am I still me?"

Yaz nodded. 

“You’re still the amazing woman I met in Sheffield.”

The Doctor sighed, letting her hands flop back onto the bed.

“Good. I like this body. I needed the change, I think.”

Silence settled over the room, the Doctor starting to doze off again.

“How are you not dead?” Yaz suddenly said, desperate to air the thoughts that had constantly tumbled round her tumultuous mind since she had been told of the Doctor’s discovery many hours before. The woman in question blinked herself awake again and waited for Yaz to express her feelings before speaking. “I saw you get thrown by the explosion. Surely no one could have survived that. And then you had a building fall on you.” 

Yaz felt a tear fall down her cheek and she roughly swiped it away. But it was not enough, all the emotion she had bottled up exploded and a sob rose from her throat. “I thought you were dead. We all did. I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't found you alive.”

The sobs snatched the rest of her words away and tears dripped off her chin.

“Oh, Yaz.”

The Doctor reached out with a shaking hand and grabbed Yaz's jacket and weakly pulled her towards her. Yaz let herself be pulled into awkward hug, pressing her face into the Doctor's shoulder in an attempt to stop the tears. She could feel the Doctor's hand in her hair.

It felt like ages passed until the tears stopped and Yaz could breathe normally again. 

“You can let go of me now, Doctor.” The hand on her head didn't move.

Yaz lifted her head carefully to look at the Doctor. Her eyes were shut and she was breathing deeply and softly.

Yaz gently removed the Doctor's hand from her hair and placed it on her stomach. The other hand that was loosely around Yaz's waist was placed the same.

She smiled, relief finally releasing that knot of anxiety in her stomach.

“Sleep well, Doctor.” She said.

**Author's Note:**

> [For sneak peeks and prompt submissions head over to my Tumblr.](https://evieswritingjournal.tumblr.com/)


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